Report 207
Report #207 Skillset: Geomancy Skill: Duststorm Org: Geomancers Status: Completed Jun 2009 Furies' Decision: Duststorm to have a 50% chance of blinding each tic, regardless of sixthsense. Problem: Duststorm currently blinds enemies, but is negated by both sixthsense and protection scroll. Sixthsense was once a more fragile thing due to encompassing both blindness and deafness, but now that it is just blindness it is extremely easy to maintain. Indeed, runist and dreamweaver geomancers have no remotely reasonable way of overcoming sixthsense, and since the other aspect of duststorm is itself negated by weathersight (yes it will still block map, but of course duststorm was originally balanced when there was no such thing as map so that's just keeping things as is), this skill can quickly fall into the realm of complete uselessness. 0 R: 0 Solution #1: Make duststorm blind each tick, regardless of sixthsense. This will make the skill useful for geomancers of all tertiaries, while being something of a tradeoff for psions who benefit from the assumption that a person will have sixthsense up and can alteraura sixthsense to blind (though obviously they benefit in other ways). It would remain blocked by protection scroll. Player Comments: ---on 6/22 @ 14:55 writes: Sounds reasonable ---on 6/22 @ 16:58 writes: Blindness stops bard instakills, and from my understanding other timed ones as well. Given the eight second time for the bard's kill song to hit and the relative ease in stopping it (blinding the bard, moving the bard or yourself out of the room, earwort, etc.), this adjustment duststorm would make it nearly useless, nearly like a passive blanknote for a bard. Of course, the degree of impact for bards also depends on how often duststorm will tick, though even at something like a 12 second tick it will still be a benefit given the effect on timed instakills. ---on 6/22 @ 23:47 writes: I was thinking 10 seconds like a standard affliction effect (that's what it ticks at now, though I doubt anyone would actually know that given its current state...). As far as passive stopping of instakills within demesne goes, that's by no means something new as they're stopped by treelife in druid demesnes and currents in aquamancer demesnes (and notice how these two are countered by protection just like duststorm would be). ---on 6/22 @ 23:51 writes: In case the point was lost, if an effect that passively stops deathsong makes that skill 'useless', then they've been useless since the dawn of bards. ---on 6/25 @ 23:26 writes: I agree with this change ---on 6/26 @ 04:28 writes: That is a pretty dubious "tradeoff" for psions. Do geos need an affliction upgrade? ---on 6/26 @ 21:36 writes: I don't see where the detriment bit comes from this suggestion. Geomancer demesnes are already extremely offensive, and making it even more so for the two other specs with the 'tradeoff' that Psionicists have to adjust one attack is just something I don't think is needed for the skillset. ---on 6/27 @ 14:25 writes: "Do geos need an affliction upgrade?" Well, considering that the only true afflictions a geomancer demesne does is 33% chance of breakleg every 10 seconds, and a minor sip penalty aff every 40 seconds that wears off on its own shortly and many consider not even worth the focus spirit to cure (and for group combat is stopped by protection just like duststorm would be), or in other words an average of 2 afflictions every 34.3 seconds, I wouldn't exactly say it's out of line. ---on 6/29 @ 03:19 writes: And prone (twice) and stun. You could also ask if Shadowdancers need an affliction upgrade, note their deafness-stopped paralysis, slaugh, insomnia removal and brief off-balance on an even slower tick and conclude that an affliction upgrade wouldn't hurt, but I think a lot of people would disagree with that process too, quite fairly. ---on 6/29 @ 18:45 writes: I agree; wiccan fae don't afflict particularly fast (though still significantly faster than a geomesne). However, the afflictions given given by crone/slaugh are 1) masked and draw from a set with a wide range of possible cures and 2) for the most part pretty debilitating and useful (compare anorexia, slickness, rigormortis, or dysentery to broken leg or sickening). ---on 6/29 @ 18:47 writes: And by the way, prone and stun, and for that matter most of the things you cited from fae, don't require the person getting hit to use any sort of curing balance to fix.